2. 外语
  3. Human beings learnt to talk about half a million years ago. Yet it was only about 5 ,000 years ago that our ancestors learnt to

Human beings learnt to talk about half a million years ago. Yet it was only about 5 ,000 years ago that our ancestors learnt to

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问题     Human beings learnt to talk about half a million years ago. Yet it was only about 5 ,000 years ago that our ancestors learnt to write.
    They first wrote by using pictures. These pictures might mean just what they showed — for example, the moon or a tree. Such pictures are called pictographs (象形文字). But sometimes the drawings presented ideas which are suggested by the pictures. That is, three trees might mean a forest. An eye with tears might mean sorrow. These pictures are called ideographs (表意文字). Here is a drawing cut into a rock by North American Indians.

    This means: " A brave chief went on a journey with five canoes. The journey took three days. " Showing the chief on a horse suggests " travelling" , for in fact he went in a canoe, not on horseback. The eagle suggests the chiefs courage. Three suns under a curved sky suggest three days.
    The ancient Egyptians developed a beautiful form of writing about 5 ,000 years ago. This writing shows objects such as animals, birds and people. These are called hieroglyphs (古埃及用的象形字). Some hieroglyphs represented things, some ideas, and some sounds. For example, if we used this system for English, a picture of a loaf of bread might mean just bread, or maybe food in general, or the sound "b" with which the word "bread" begins. The ancient Egyptians used over 700 different hieroglyphs.
    The alphabet was invented by the Phoenicians about 3,500 years ago. The Phoenicians lived where Syria and Israel are now. The alphabet was perhaps the greatest invention of mankind. Like many great inventions, it was extremely simple.

    In an alphabet, symbols represent sounds, not objects or ideas. Any symbol can be used for an alphabet. For example, " * π + " could spell "cat" if we all agreed that these symbols represent the sounds "c" , "a" and "t". The 26 letter A—Z alphabet is the most widely used in the world, but there are over fifty alphabets in use. If we use an alphabet, we know how any word that we read sounds. We can also write down any word we hear. Words can be easily arranged in lists "alphabetically". Using a keyboard is also easy, as an alphabet contains only a few symbols (letters), and so few keys are needed.
    Most languages use alphabets, but Chinese uses "characters". Characters are like drawings. They represent whole words, not single letters. There are therefore thousands of characters in Chinese, one for each word. You cannot know how a Chinese character sounds simply by looking at it. But if you have seen it before, you will know what it means without knowing how it sounds.
Questions 66—70
Answer the following questions according to the passage.
Which is much earlier for human beings to learn, to talk or to write?
选项
答案To talk．
解析 (根据文章的第一段可知，人类最早开始学习的是说话，大约五十万年前，而人类开始写字是五千年前。)
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大学生英语竞赛（NECCS）

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